Exxon Mobil Masterpiece Theater: The Blackheath Poisonings

Starring:Christine Kavanagh, Ian McNeice, ZoÃ« Wanamaker, Judy Parfitt, Patrick Malahide, James Faulkner, Christien Anholt, Julia St. John, Nicholas Woodeson, Ronald Fraser, Donald Sumpter, Dafydd Hywel, Ralph Nossek, Ian Bartholomew, Gabrielle Cowburn, George Anton, Danny Schiller, Basil Hoskins, Richard Strange, Andrew Robertson
Director: Stuart Orme
Studio: Wgbh Boston
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Description
Behind the shutters of a Victorian family's home lies a lethal potion of lust, corruption and greed.

At first glance, the two toymaking families who share a spacious villa in the leafy London suburb of Blackheath appear to be the era's picture-perfect examples. But looks can be murderously deceiving.

The Collards and Vandervents are not alone in their house-they are also living with wicked secrets. Thrown together for the sake of the family business, they each harbor dangerous emotionsand equally dangerous habits. Led by the frosty hand of a diabolic matriarch, the extended family also includes a selfish, debauched son; a bitter spinster; an adulterous wife; and a sharp young man who suspects his father's sudden death wasn't caused by the hand of God, but by poison.

A police investigation reveals unseemly secrets and an illicit affair that leads to a shockingand rivetingconclusion. The Blackheath Poisonings, based on the best-selling mystery novel by Julian Symons, and adapted by Simon Raven (Edward and Mrs. Simpson), boldly and brilliantly redefines the Victorian era.

Special DVD features include: selected cast flmographies; selected cast list; biography of host Russell Baker; a link to the Masterpiece Theatre Web site; closed captions; and described video for the visually impaired.

Description

Behind the shutters of a Victorian family's home lies a lethal potion of lust, corruption and greed.

The Collards and Vandervents are not alone in their house-they are also living with wicked secrets. Thrown together for the sake of the family business, they each harbor dangerous emotions—and equally dangerous habits. Led by the frosty hand of a diabolic matriarch, the extended family also includes a selfish, debauched son; a bitter spinster; an adulterous wife; and a sharp young man who suspects his father's sudden death wasn't caused by the hand of God, but by poison.

A police investigation reveals unseemly secrets and an illicit affair that leads to a shocking—and riveting—conclusion. The Blackheath Poisonings, based on the best-selling mystery novel by Julian Symons, and adapted by Simon Raven (Edward and Mrs. Simpson), boldly and brilliantly redefines the Victorian era.

On one DVD9 discs. Region coding: All regions. Audio: Dolby stereo. Screen format: 4x3 full frame.

Customer Reviews:

Not quite a hit.......2007-02-24

I bought this as a gift for my 88 year-old aunt, who loves Masterpiece Theater. I have never watched a Masterpiece Theater program, but I thought this story sounded interesting, and it was just about the only MT DVD available on Amazon. My aunt was offended by what she saw as a gratuitous sex scene in this movie, and apparently this is not the norm for MT productions. She enjoyed the story itself, though. Just be aware that this is not as innocuous as most MT programs apparenty are.

A nicely murderous tale of Victorian resentments.......2006-06-18

"I loved Roger Vandervent. My only crime has been my nature," says Isabel Collard, and it turns out to be true, even though her lover has died of arsenic poisoning. That a person's nature is the driving force can also be said of the true murderer, as well as of the person who takes the final step to justice.

The Blackheath Poisonings is one of those masterful Masterpiece Theater showcases, full of sumptuous Victorian detail, skillful acting and the sort of exquisite manners one loves to observe and is repulsed by. The Collard family owns Collard and Vandervent, toymakers to the empire. It is a company that nothing will change. There is Isabel (Christine Kavanaugh), married to George Collard (Ian McNeice), a fat, epicene man who loves chocolates. Isabel is an adulteress with Roger Vandervent (James Faulkner), who is married to Beatrice (Julia St. John), a Collard daughter and sister to George. She is a woman of treasured resentments and heavy brows. They have a son, young Paul (Christien Anholt), who worships Isabel and wants to be free of the family. Another daughter, Charlotte (Zoe Wanamaker), makes a match with an adventurer, Robert Dangerfield (Patrick Malahyde), but she just might prove to be better at the game than he. Ruling over them all with an imperious will that can shrivel all before it is the matriarch of the family, Harriet Collard (Judy Parfitt). She dresses in black, pulls her hair so tightly back it must hurt and has a glare which can freeze thumbs.

The affection these people seem to have for each other could fit in a thimble. Before long Roger Vandervent is dead and Isabel is charged with murder. No one seems to care deeply one way or the other except Paul. Then Harriet dies, gasping and discretely vomiting. All the while Robert Dangerfield is maneuvering for control of the firm. The Collard siblings seem to have no greater pleasure than to ignore each others' feelings and condescend to everyone else. In addition to all this, there are servants playing pinch the bottom in the butler's pantry, purloined letters of indiscrete passion and nasty blackmail. Paul is left to sort out the truth. He has little time because Isabel, now on trial for the poisoning of her lover, faces hanging. In a nice bit of Victorian realism, the truth takes Paul to a place which dare not speak its name, but which requires the funds of a gentlemen and an affection for corsets, makeup and veils.

It's vicious, tawdry, mannered and a great deal of fun. Unfortunately, things slow a bit toward the end. The revelation behind the murders isn't quite as gaspingly shocking as it might have been in Queen Victoria's time. Still, the story is told with poisonous skill, the production values are very high and the acting is a pleasure to watch. Particularly fine jobs are turned in by Parfitt, McNeice and Wanamaker.

The DVD picture looks just fine. The only significant extras are a cast filmography and cast list.

ENGAGING MYSTERY.......2005-08-29

I loved the period details and I thought the acting was generally very good. I would recommend "The Blackheath Poisonings" to anyone interested in Victorian drama/mysteries.

Victorian mystery.......2004-07-01

The 3 hour-long BBC television production "The Blackheath Poisonings" is a period piece set in Victorian England. It concerns the Collard and Vandervent families--joined by marriage and a toy manufacturing business. The extended families all live together in the sumptuous family mansion, and the matriarch, Harriet Collard (Judy Parfitt) rules everyone with a rod of iron. Harriet has three children: Beatrix who is married to Roger, Georgie who is married to Isabel, and old maid Charlotte. Charlotte cast her eyes on the unreliable adventurer, Robert Dangerfield--a match most members of the family find quite unsuitable.

The atmosphere in the Collard/Vandervent mansion is suffocating and oppressive at best. All the inhabitants find methods of release, and some of the habits are inevitably destructive. It seems two of the family--related by marriage--are indulging in a passionate love affair under the very noses of everyone else. But just as the affair may be revealed, one of the family members dies a horrible death. Is it "gastric misadventure" as the puffy, old family doctor announces, or is poison the cause of death?

The sets, costumes and acting of this BBC production are all, as always, impeccable. The plot is initially very strong and compelling. Everyone is a suspect, everyone has a motive, and this makes for a fascinating story. The plot very cleverly plays with all the suspects, so that at first you think perhaps it's one character, but then suspicion shifts to someone else. However, the denouement is far too rapid, disjointed and choppy. After the truth is revealed, the explanation seems preposterous. Many unanswered questions remain and consequently one is left with the lingering feeling of disappointment--displacedhuman

Victorian murder mystery...........2003-12-21

The BLACKHEATH POISONINGS is a great film. Originally, a BBC/Masterpiece presentation on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting network, the film features a cast of familiar British faces such as Judy Parfitt (JEWEL IN THE CROWN, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE), Patrick Malahide (MIDDLEMARCH, THE SINGING DECTECTIVE); Zoe Wanamaker (MORSE) and dozens of other actors you've seen in various Mystery Theater presentations.

The transfer of the film is reasonably good. The plot is very complex. The cast of characters excepting the doctors who treat the poisoned and the police who investigate what turns out to be murder, are all members of the same family). The family business is toy manufacturing, and a number of curious 19th century toys are featured in various scenes. The action takes place in a fabulous Victorian house (red and green and filled with nicknacks), a 19th century factory, a brothel, a train station, a cemetery, and a park. Think Sherlock Holmes crossed with Gilbert and Sullivan.

Parfitt plays the domineering, stingy, and uptight matriarch "she who must be obeyed" to a family comprised of resentful adult children - sons, sons-in-law, daughters, nephews, stepchildren. The seven deadly sins are represented by the various family members - anger, lust, greed, avarice, lust - did I say lust? Sex and money are at the root of their problems - often the case in repressed Victorian society.

This mystery is SO good my 74-year old husband who usually falls asleep at 8:00 p.m. in front of the tv stayed awake until 11:20 p.m. When I asked him 2/3 of the way through the three hour showing if he wanted to continue, he said, "Bring her on."

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